Decide to wait

 

Habakkuk makes an important (and wise) decision. 

I will stand on my guard post
And station myself on the rampart;
And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me,
And how I may reply when I am reproved. (Habakkuk 2:1, NASB)

Depending on the translation you read, the phrase above could use "guard post" as the NASB does, or could use "watchtower." It could describe some sort of wooden tower that the prophet built, where he could watch and wait for God's answer to come. It could describe a spot on the city wall, since he mentions "rampart," where he took up his watch and waited. Habakkuk had no clue how the Lord would answer. He didn't know how long he would have to wait. He only knew that he'd said all that was in his heart - and now it was time to wait on the Lord.

Habakkuk still doesn't understand how God can use the wicked Babylonians to judge Judah for their sins. It still doesn't make sense to him. 

We don't know exactly how long he had to wait until God, at length, answered him. We humans today are not good at waiting.

We're not good at listening, either. 

Nowadays, we are best at talking.

We talk on our phones.

We talk in person.

We "talk" on social media. Oh, we do that a lot.

Maybe part of the problem, and the reason we "don't get an answer from God" is that we are too busy talking! At some point, we have to stop talking about our problems. We need to listen for what God is going to say to us.

Habakkuk is wise enough to take his problems to the Almighty. And wise enough to leave them there. And listen.

If there is one thing we have seen this week, it's that God is bigger than we think He is. And maybe I mean "better," too. His ways are better than the ways we would use. His heart is better than our hearts as we struggle to be more like Him. His thoughts are better and higher. His plans are WAY better, even though we don't always understand. So we shouldn't be surprised, I guess, when His answers don't always line up with our desires!

So, what do we do when the answer we receive from God is not what we expected? What do we do when we don't like His answer?
Getting angry doesn't help.

Getting sad doesn't help.

Trying to "make a deal" with Him doesn't help.

We CAN ask God questions, like our buddy Habakkuk did.

We CAN go back to the basics and remind ourselves Who God is, like Habakkuk did.

MOST OF ALL, we can decide to wait on the Lord. We can have faith and hope that what doesn't make sense to us now will be much clearer later on. 

We'll leave Habakkuk in his tower, or on the ramparts, for now. He is an example to us of waiting for the Lord. 

Are we waiting on the Lord right now for an answer? As we wait, let's remember that God has not forgotten us. We are on His mind right now! He sees our fear, our confusion, and our pain. Do not despair; wait and rest.

Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath;
Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.
9 For evildoers will be cut off,
But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. (Psalm 37:7-9)

How could you let this happen?

 

Gotta love our buddy, Habakkuk.

He is so very familiar! We've all been there, and done that!

We've all asked these questions.

Habakkuk answered his own first question: God, Who are You?

He reminded himself of the attributes of God - and took comfort in the basics. Habakkuk reminded himself of the holiness and goodness of God; he recalled that God is sovereign; he remembered that He makes no mistakes.

Then, in verse thirteen, he asks, "How could you let this happen?"

Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they? (v. 13, NASB)

Hmmmm. We all understand that there are inequities in our world. It's hard to watch some people get a few sprinkles of "into each life a little rain must fall" while others endure a virtual downpour. We may be experiencing the downpour ourselves. How do we explain this?

Habakkuk's question came from what he saw as a seeming conflict in God and what He was allowing to happen. He thought, if God cannot tolerate wrongdoing (which is true, He cannot tolerate sin) then how in the world could He use the Babylonians to judge Judah? After all, Babylon's sins were over the moon greater than the sins of Judah, right?

We've probably seen what we feel are contradictions like that. But it's not a contradiction. There are NO contradictions with Father God -- but it IS true that He does things that seem to us to be inconsistent. The key phrase is "seem to us." 

We know that God's ways will not always make sense to us. Not even when we look through the lens of our faith. Well, I guess a better way to put it is this: in the short run, God's ways will sometimes not make sense to us. We just don't know why things happen the way that they do.

Sometimes we find out later.

Sometimes days later; sometimes years later. Sometimes we won't find out until we get to heaven!

Everybody wrestles with this at some point in their life. When we get right down to brass tacks, as my grandma used to say, we come back to this truth: God is sovereign and we are not. Have you ever thought about all the mistakes we make because we forget that? (Grin) It's important for us to remember this verse:

But our God is in the heavens;
He does whatever He pleases. (Psalm 115:3)

So, at this point in chapter one of Habakkuk, God hasn't answered this question from the prophet. We will see His answer in the next chapter.

But Habakkuk isn't done yet!

He also wants to know "how long is this going to last?"

Will they therefore empty their net
And continually slay nations without sparing? (Habakkuk 1:17)

They? Who? The whole Babylonian army, led by King Nebuchadnezzar. They keep on conquering nation after nation . . . To them, nations and people are like fish - they keep reeling in more and more. And now they are fishing for Judah!

In the face of this evil, Habakkuk wonders when it will all end. Will no one be able to stop Babylon? Will Nebuchadnezzar's reign of terror go on forever? When life crashes in around us, we ask, like Habakkuk did: when will it end? 

So, now we have the three questions that Habakkuk asked of God. He answered the first one, Who are you? He's waiting for God to answer the other two: how can you let this happen? and how long will this go on?

These are all honest questions. Habakkuk is confident in God, but he has questions that he can't answer. He does the only thing he knows to do -- he turns to God to answer them.

More tomorrow . . . . .

Verses that inspire

 

Remember these words from David?

How sweet are your words to my taste,
    sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psalm 119:103)

And these?

They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. (Psalm 19:10)

That second verse inspired me recently . . . God's Word is not only sweet to us, but it's compared favorably with gold -- that expensive, precious, hard to find metal. David qualifies his comparison for us; not only is the Word of God more desirable than gold, it's more desirable than LOTS of gold (much gold). In fact, it's even more desirable than MUCH FINE gold. Lots and lots of the finest, most expensive, hardest to find, most precious gold.

What are we driving at here? In our lives, we have choices to make. Will we spend time in the Word, or will we choose gold? 

Are we tempted to read the stock pages or the obituaries on our laptop before we read our Bible in the morning?

Do we think about checking emails before we study the Word? 

It's very telling what we will do first. Or what we spend more time doing!

What do we consider more valuable? 

Think about a small child. They are offered a penny or a dime to choose from. They can have either one. The child looks at the dime and thinks it can't be more valuable than the penny. The dime is smaller. The adults shake their heads and smile. They try to teach the child how to see what is really more valuable. 

Knowing the value of things is a question of wisdom.

Don't you reckon that is how the angels look down at us when we behave childishly and check emails before spending time in His Word? When we look at the obituaries before obeying Him? When we put priority on other things besides studying and understanding His Word? We need to remember that the benefits of immersing ourselves in the Word are far greater than keeping up with these other things!

If you've recently been inspired by a verse in His Word, won't you leave us a note and let us know? Your comment might be just what another reader needs to see . . . 

Back to the basics

What do we do when we have prayed to God and we don't like the answer we got? We talked about this some last week; we talked about how we've been there, just as Habakkuk was. Most of us have been there many times. That is just the way life is. 

We have our dreams and we make our plans. We sincerely desire to do the will of God and we pray. But when the answer comes, it's not what we were expecting. We discover that God's plan and ours are not the same. We've prayed "thy will be done," but it still knocks us for a loop when we discover that God has something completely different in mind . . . 

That's where our buddy Habakkuk is standing. He sure doesn't like the answer he received. Like we said last week, he first thought that God might be ignoring Judah's sins. And next, he thought, "no way!" God wouldn't use the Babylonians to discipline Judah, would He?

Well, he was wrong on both counts.

And Habakkuk's problem is a common one. It happens when God doesn't live up to our expectations. The same thing troubles people today. We can't reconcile our view of God with the injustice we see around us. We see pain and suffering around us, and we wonder where it comes from AND why God allows it.

We see a tornado touch down and we wonder why there, not over there?

We hear of Christians being massacred in Iraq and in Africa, and we say why?

The list of questions goes on and on.

Habakkuk is the story of a man who wrestled with God over the hard questions. And we can learn a lot from his personal journey.

Let's look at the second half of chapter one:

Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. You, O LORD, have appointed them to judge; And You, O Rock, have established them to correct. 

 Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they? 

Why have You made men like the fish of the sea, Like creeping things without a ruler over them? 

The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, Drag them away with their net, And gather them together in their fishing net. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. 

Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net And burn incense to their fishing net; Because through these things their catch is large, And their food is plentiful. 

Will they therefore empty their net And continually slay nations without sparing? (v 12 - 17)

Let's dig into the questions that Habakkuk asked God.

The first thing he asked was "Who are You?" Now that seems like a strange question, doesn't it? I heard a pastor say once that when God makes no sense to us humans, we either turn our back on our faith or we remind ourselves who God is . . . if our faith begins to falter, we "go back to the basics." That is what we see Habakkuk do in verse twelve up there.

Habakkuk calls God everlasting; He is sovereign.

He calls Him Lord; He is the personal God of Israel.

He calls Him God; the Creator and majestic ruler.

He calls Him holy; set apart from sin.

He calls Him the Rock; the only safe place.

When we are trying (like Habakkuk was) to get our heads around an unexpected answer from God, we should go back to what we know is true about God. If we are beginning to question His wisdom, we must remember His sovereignty. If we are stressed about His faithfulness, we simply need to remind ourselves of His eternal love. If we are worried about His power, we need to remember His majesty. If we are thinking His plan isn't fair, we should remind ourselves of His holiness.  If we remember that He protects us, we will never question His goodness.

Our question is not the one the atheists pose: "Do I believe in God?"  Our question is "What sort of God do I believe in?"  God's plans for us make not make sense to us. But faith is not a feeling. It's a choice. Sometimes we humans are going to choose to believe something because of what we can see or hear or well, you know the five senses, right? (Grin) But I'm here to testify -- sometimes we choose to believe in spite of what we see. As we look at the world around us, there are always going to be mysterious things and unanswerable questions. But if there's not a God in heaven, and if He is not good, then absolutely nothing makes sense! We choose to believe. It's in the valleys that we learn our only confidence is in God alone. 

Many of us have participated in services where the pastor will say, "God is good."

The congregation will answer, "All the time."

The pastor then says, "All the time," and the people say, "God is good."

I read an account of a pastor who discovered that this originated in the churches of Nigeria. There was one significant difference, though. In Nigeria, the congregation would finish by saying, "I am a witness."

Wow!

That's powerful. And it's personal.

A personal testimony.

And that is what Habakkuk is doing in this second part of chapter one. He is still confused, but he is testifying to his faith in God.

Perhaps the next time God gives us an answer that shakes us in our boots, we should remind ourselves of the "basics."

God is good and holy.

He is just and knows all things.

God is love. He makes no mistakes.

God's Word is true.

Jesus Christ is His Son. 
He died on the cross and rose from the dead.

He ascended into heaven and will return one day.

The Holy Spirit is real and guides me each day.

Then, the basics about us - our testimony.

God is always with me.

All things work together for my good and for God's glory.

God will complete His work in me.

If we say these things, or perhaps write them out, when we feel like asking God questions, those "basic" principles will bring comfort to our hearts. They will strengthen our faith. They will be a reminder to us of God's character and love -- and they will help us be witnesses!

Friday slowdown

 No matter what we are facing individually.....no matter what we are facing as a country......no matter what we are facing globally......

.....the battle belongs to the Lord. He is in control. He will fight for us, shelter us, vindicate us, and sing over us.

Amen!

Here come the Babylonians

 

We closed our study yesterday by saying that God was going to answer Habakkuk's prayer; He was going to send something -- but it wasn't going to be revival. 

Enter the Babylonians.

“I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth” (v. 6).

I bet that Habakkuk was surprised, to put it mildly. He knew about the Babylonians (or the Chaldeans, as some historians call them).  Everybody knew about the Babylonians. They were the most hated and the most feared nation on earth. Their king was Nebuchadnezzar, and they looted, plundered, and enslaved the countries around them. No one could stand in their way. And no one could defeat them.

The Babylonians were cruel and ravenous to conquer more and more territory. If they saw a province or a nation that had a commodity they wanted, they just "up and took it." They intimidated their new subjects by piling up skulls in the city plazas, or torturing (and maiming) their provincial or national leaders. In our world today, it is probably hard for most people to fully comprehend the dread the Jews felt about the Babylonians as they watched them spread across the ancient world.

Look at how God describes the Babylonians: 

They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor. 

 Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle swooping to devour; 

they all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand. 

They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; by building earthen ramps they capture them. 

 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on— guilty people, whose own strength is their god. (Habakkuk 1:7-11)

Ruthless, impetuous. 

Feared, dreaded, a law unto themselves.

Swift as leopards, ravenous as wolves, and surprise their prey like eagles do.

Gathering prisoners like sand, mocking kings and scoffing at rulers.

They never stop.

But here is God's final indictment of the Babylonians: "whose strength is their god."

Wow. When God decides to judge Judah, He picks the meanest people on the block! I bet Habakkuk couldn't believe what he had just heard. 

Very often in the Bible, and in our own lives, too, things have to get worse before they can get better. I think we have all watched young people and adults alike who have been determined to go their own way, and life their lives without God. They've made horrible choices. Things have gotten worse. 

But then they hit rock bottom. And they realize Who they need. Maybe this is what Judah will need. We will see, as we study the book of Habakkuk.

This will be a study that will encourage us to see the "big picture."

We try to understand what God is doing in our world, and we only see a little of it at a time . . . . kinda like ants on a picnic blanket, we crawl along on the red part of the blanket and think life is all red. We hit a band of white and think wow, life is white. This is better. We crawl across a napkin and think life is blue, or across a plate and think life is red but has pink watermelon on it. We think, this is better; it tastes better than when we tried to sample the napkin. We trudge along from one color or texture to another -- we may never realize that God is actually painting a masterpiece in our lives using all of these colors. Every color has its place. Nothing is wasted. And when the painting is finished, we will discover that we were part of the painting from the very beginning.

Along with seeing the big picture, we need to remember that we serve a big God. Here's what I mean: God is not limited to what we think He should do! We humans make the mistake all the time of thinking that our plans and God's plans are the same. They aren't! 

 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9)

God is not anybody's servant. He is Almighty God; He does whatever He pleases, whenever He pleases.

Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. (Psalm 115:3)

Habakkuk, in this conversation with God, thought he knew what God should do. In fact, I kinda like ole Habakkuk because he was a mistake-maker, just like me. First, he thought God was ignoring the sins of the people. Secondly, he was shocked and couldn't believe that God would use the Babylonians to judge the people of Judah. 

It's a good thing that God is bigger than our puny ideas.

It's a good thing that God's ways continually surprise us.

We need to be like Habakkuk; we need to be open to God's work in our lives; He can certainly change things around.

For Habakkuk, it's going to be a change from being puzzled to being filled with praise!

The first eleven verses of Habakkuk have been incredible! I can't wait to dig into the rest!

Let's meet Habakkuk

 

I hope that you will read all three chapters of Habakkuk this week. Right now, if you haven't read chapter one, do me a favor and pause -- read that first chapter and come back! 

We don't know a whole lot about Habakkuk. Scholars tell us he was probably about thirty years old, and they say he was a contemporary of Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Not that he knew them personally, but he lived at approximately the same time period. They also have pinpointed that he was about ten or fifteen years older than Daniel.

When Habakkuk saw the terrible wickedness of Judah, and how they were all heading off the cliff of immorality, like lemmings rushing over the edge, he prayed. He asked God to do something. He probably had in mind that God could raise up another good king to lead the people in the ways of God. 

But Habakkuk should have listened to my grandma.

"Be careful what you pray for."

Little did Habakkuk know that God's answer would come by way of a hated nation that was hostile to Judah!

In the first four verses of chapter 1, Habakkuk cries out to God about the wickedness of the nation. Then the Lord answers him in the remaining verses of the chapter.

Habakkuk lived in very stressful, confusing times. So do we! Habakkuk knew where to go for answers; his book is only three chapters long, but he gives us an awesome strategy to use . . . in the first chapter, we see him ask God for answers. Chapter two finds him waiting. And chapter three finds him praying. 

Some people think the minor prophets are just not books that they want to invest a lot of time into. What in the world could a dusty book of prophecy about wayward Hebrews tell me, they think. 

Au contraire!

Habakkuk is actually a pretty modern book! He raises some of the same questions that we hear people asking today! 

Young and old, people are troubled today, and wrestling with questions. Young people, especially lately, have become disenchanted with life, and they even want to end their lives. They trudge from therapist to doctor and back again, looking for answers, getting prescriptions for drugs, and trying to find meaning and purpose. They feel that God is silent, unmoved by their plight.

Habakkuk looked around and saw a lot of what we see in our world today. Sexual immorality. Idolatry. Robbery. Power-hungry people. Looters. Thieves. Murderers. Political corruption.

Wow.

In the beginning of the chapter, Habakkuk expresses his sorrow and his frustration. 

“How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save?” (v. 2).

As he looked around him, Habakkuk wanted to know, how long will You let this go on? Perhaps a mother praying for her wayward son might wonder that. Perhaps a parent praying for a sick child might wonder why God is silent. 

We cry out to the Lord with the psalmist . . . 

Why, Lord, do you stand far off?
    Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1)

In addition to our human response to what we think is unanswered prayer, we look around and see increasing wickedness. How many of our cities have experienced looting, violence, and evil? How many people are affected by the break up of the nuclear family? How many adults and children are impacted by the evils of pornography?

Habakkuk saw wickedness and perversion around him. He saw destruction and violence. Things seem to be totally out of control.

So, we can identify with Habakkuk in his conversation with God, no? We can empathize with his questions, with his frustration, too. 

I expect that he wanted to hear a word of comfort from God, don't you? He wanted to hear that there was a good king on the horizon. Or a charismatic, engaging religious leader that would turn the people back to God.

Well, God, DID answer him . . . yep, Habakkuk, I've got this. I have plans that will take care of all these problems. 

“Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told” (v.5).

Whoooo hooooo! Sounds great, right?

Sounds like God will send a great leader, or send a spiritual awakening in the religious community that will spill over and lead the people back to God.

Well, God is going to send something, but it's totally unexpected! Let's dig into that tomorrow!